Emmy nod for Bill Hader: It’s no joke

McClatchy newspapers

LOS ANGELES

“Saturday Night Live” stalwart Bill Hader tries not to analyze things too much, preferring to live by the motto found on the wall at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. “Don’t think,” reads the comedy group’s credo.

“Good for comedy, good for life,” Hader says by phone from Montreal.

But after receiving an Emmy nomination for comedy supporting actor — the first male “SNL” player to be so honored since Eddie Murphy 29 years ago — Hader couldn’t help but ponder his good fortune. For the last seven seasons, he has created an array of wildly appealing weirdos, most notably “Weekend Update” correspondent Stefon, whose love of offbeat New York night life has made him a fan favorite. Hader discussed it all.

Q. Your Emmy nomination took many by surprise. You too?

A. When people called, it wasn’t, “Hey, man, congratulations.” It was, “Holy ..., they actually nominated you for an Emmy! How did that happen?”

Q. No offense taken?

A. Hey, I had to look at the list online just to make sure. Because I’m still figuring it’s not the real Emmys. Then one of my buddies calls and says: “Now you’re in an Emmy category with Ed O’Neill!” So it just keeps getting more surreal.

Q. But it’s not that out there. Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig were nominated the last few years.

A. Our quarterbacks these past few seasons have been these phenomenal women. Amy was the person I looked up to when I first got there. My first day at “SNL,” she took me and Andy Samberg out to dinner and asked, “All right, what do you want to know?”

Q. What did you want to know?

A. How hard is it to work with cue cards? She told me to play to the cards. Don’t memorize anything. More great advice: Don’t do the show for your friends back home. Because before you get to “SNL,” you have your own sensibility. And when you get to “SNL,” it’s the show’s sensibility. So don’t worry about what your friends say.

Q. Did your friends complain about the stuff you were doing?

A. They were more like, “Dude, you’re on ... ‘SNL!’”

Q. And now people are Stefon for Halloween ...

A. It’s flattering, though I still have no idea why. If you were to go down the list of things that never work on “SNL” — low-energy characters, weird, offbeat, druggy humor — Stefon has all those things. I’ve tried low-energy, nuanced characters in other sketches, and it never flies. But for some reason, people love Stefon.

Q. I just watched Kristen Wiig’s send-off again. You were really belting out “She’s a Rainbow” in the background.

A. That was my way of trying not to cry. Put all your energy in the song! Because when Kristen and I hugged each other, we were both like, “Oh, boy, here it comes.”